


The Scars We Hide

by lmontyy



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Comfort, Ellie - Freeform, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Healing, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Romantic Fluff, TLOU, The Last of Us - Freeform, Tumblr request, dina - Freeform, ellie and dina, ellie x dina, more requests needed, the last of us 2, the last of us part 2 - Freeform, the last of us part ii, the last of us part two, these two are perfect for each other, they hurt together and i love it, tlou 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 15:55:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21018380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lmontyy/pseuds/lmontyy
Summary: Dina makes a discovery about Ellie, and Ellie makes a discovery about Dina. Inevitably, it brings them closer together.





	The Scars We Hide

The warmth beside her was dizzying. Dina’s eyes wandered the room – it was encompassed in darkness. The only light surrounding them was the moonlight peering through the window. The shadows lurked in the corners, the silvery, satin light washing over the covers above their warm bodies.

Beside her, laid Ellie, the bravest, strongest, most diligent girl she’s ever met. The most physically, mentally, emotionally attractive person she’s ever interacted with, in her nineteen years of being alive in the cruel world they lived in. She wanted nothing more than to grow as close to this infatuating girl as she could. 

Ellie became Dina’s obsession. She wanted to know everything about her, to stay close to her, and to break down her walls. Watch those walls crumble, allowing her to step into her warmth. From the moment Ellie and Joel passed through those walls, she wanted it.

She watched carefully as her chest would rise and fall, softly and peacefully. She’d never seen the girl so tranquil in all the years she knew her. It was nights like these she could watch her sleep for hours, watching those beautiful lips part with a breath, and exhale gently. Listening to the occasional hum of comfort release from the back of her throat, as she would lean over and lay her head closer and closer to Dina. With every hum, with every move, with every second she ebbed closer, Dina felt herself falling deeper in love.

It had taken many, many years to fully come to understand Ellie. She was always very secretive, very protective of her stories and her experiences. Even now, Dina knew there were many things about Ellie and what she went through that she still didn’t know. Regardless of her own obsession with finding out, Dina could set it aside for her best friend’s comfort. Ellie’s walls stood high, and she protected them very well. From day one, there wasn’t a day that Ellie wasn’t introverted and reserved, and there wasn’t a day that Dina didn’t want to pop that bubble.

Leaning closer to the sleeping girl beside her, she reached out, and felt the soft fabric of Ellie’s t-shirt, the same one she wore to bed most nights. It was hard to see in the dim light, but Dina knew it was of a navy blue color. It was soft to the touch, a little tattered, but comfortable nonetheless. She had worn it before – Ellie had lent it to her one night that she came by to stay over after the rocky breakup with her ex-boyfriend. Even though it had been weeks ago, Dina never forgot the feeling of Ellie taking her into her arms, reassuring her, giving her a place to stay where she knew she wouldn’t be alone.

Feeling the sleeve of the shirt and gripping it, she let her eyes wander the front of the girl next to her. Her peaceful complexion in the shade, turned away from the moonlight, mixed with the contrast of the battle scars and earth that had permanently been engraved into her face. Her soft, plump lips were parted ever so slightly, letting in the cool air around her into her mouth, and releasing the warm breath back out, tickling Dina’s nose and cheeks with every exhale. Her chest heaved gently, in and out, in a perfect balance.

Her hand traveled down a soft, yet rough arm, slowly, stopping at the beautiful inscription that had been marked into her skin. The branching ferns, the small leaves with the moth sitting at the base. She trailed her fingers over each leaf, each smooth mark outlined in the darkness.

Suddenly, her finger dipped into the skin. She pulled her hand away, startled. There had been dents in her skin; the her curiosity got into her head, and her thin fingers found their way back onto her forearm, tracing the equally spaced marks, covered by the ink.

Some sensation, whether it was Dina jumping or feeling around her arm, caused Ellie to wake suddenly, jumping from shock.

“What are you doing?” She demanded in a drowsy whisper.

“Nothing,” Dina whispered back, stunned by the sudden reaction. “I was just… feeling the tattoo…” As Dina muttered the words, Ellie yanked her arm away, realizing Dina’s soft hands were still placed against her skin. 

“Why are you doing that?” She hid her arm on the other side of her, softening her tone at the surprised, and somewhat hurt expression on Dina’s face.

“It’s beautiful…” Dina sighed, reaching out for her arm again.

Very hesitantly, Ellie slowly brought her arm back around. She deliberately turned her arm to keep the tattoo facing her and out of Dina’s eyeshot. 

“Ellie…”

There was no response, only an innocent, scared look on the face of the redhead girl in front of her. It shook Dina to her core, broke her heart into a million pieces.

“Why can’t I see?” She pressed, touching her fingertips to her skin again.

“Because…” Her words trailed off quickly, and her mouth zipped shut.

“Because?”

Another moment of tense silence. Ellie struggled to form words out of her mouth. Dina couldn’t read the expression on her face, and it was infuriating. Her fingers made their way back to the dips in her skin, like she’d already memorized their location.

“What is it, Ellie?” She questioned gently, her fingers moving over the curves once again in a way that was so soft and so understanding that it was heartbreaking.

Ellie took a shaky breath, but again, no words came forward. Dina could feel the girl start quivering, and could see the panic written on her face like a novel. Suddenly, Ellie was an open book, and Dina could read every word on her face like a page.

“You got bit?” Dread filled her from head to toe. Her stomach dropped from its cavity, and her veins ran cold. Her fingertips turned to ice against the warm skin of her friend.

It had to be one of Dina’s worst fears. Having to watch Ellie slowly transform into a brainless, deadly creature, watching her suffer through the pain. It was like a nightmare, where she would wake up in a cold sweat and tears in her eyes. Where she would run to Ellie’s room and throw herself onto the girl, sobbing and screaming into her shirt.

Everything felt numb.

Ellie’s wide-eyed stare was enough to tell Dina every sentence of what she was thinking. A horrifying chill spiked up Dina’s spine.

“When was it? Today?” Her tone hardened as the panic set in for her.

“No,” Ellie answered gently. Her voice was broken and soft, it made Dina fall apart at the seams.

“When were you going to tell me, Ellie?” Dina demanded, her voice cracking ever so slightly. Her eyes burned like fire behind every blink, and it felt like someone was pushing them farther into her head. The pressure of the tears she was fighting back made her stomach turn.

“It wasn’t recent,” She responded, her voice shaking.

“Then when was it?” She felt rage and hatred reach its peak in her mind, realizing that Ellie could be dead within minutes.

“Six years ago.”

There wasn’t much of an emotion she could display when Ellie said that. Confusion didn’t even begin to cover it.

Her brows furrowed at the girl, mouth parting slightly, and Ellie drank in her confusion. Dina couldn’t really formulate a sentence. She almost feared this had been one sick joke Ellie was pulling.

“Wh–” Dina tried to ask. “Six y…”

“I was bit six years ago,” Ellie cut her off with a defeated sigh. “I can’t get infected. I was thirteen when my best friend and I got bit… I survived, and she…”

The reality of the situation crashed down on Dina, and before Ellie could finish, pure relief clouded her vision, and she pulled the girl in for a hug. Holding her as tightly as she could, she could feel Ellie’s shaky, broken breaths against the side of her face and neck.

Ellie didn’t really say anything else. She didn’t even shed a tear. There were no tears left to shed, for it had been years of hate and anger and mourning for her. All of her tears had been rendered dry, her eyes a desert with little displayed emotion.

“God, Ellie,” The pressure in Dina’s eyes had reached its maximum, and she felt her tears pushing past her eyelids. “I literally thought you were going to die.” She pulled her tighter to her. “I thought I was going to lose you.”

“No… no, no,” Ellie’s soothing whisper played against her ear as her hands found purchase on Dina’s back. “I’m okay.”

All of the fear packed into her body released through her plentiful tears. She only managed to hold back the sobs as she breathed heavily into Ellie’s t-shirt.

They were silent then, Ellie holding her, Dina holding her back, and once the tears stopped flowing, and the initial shock surpassed, Dina was able to breathe and speak calmly again.

“So, you’re immune basically?” She asked with a deep breath.

“Yeah, for whatever reason, I have some genetic mutation that keeps me from getting infected.”

“Okay, superhero,” she joked in an attempt to lighten the mood. That quickly shifted as Dina remembered what Ellie had said. “I’m really sorry about your friend.”

“That’s okay,” Ellie replied hastily. “This was a long time ago. You live and move on.”

Those words stung Dina’s heart. Knowing that Ellie even went through that made her sick with sorrow.

“Yeah…” A sigh escaped the back of her throat, and nothing else followed.

Silence fell over them again. Dina waited for a word, maybe an explanation, maybe Ellie would just tell her the story. But nothing followed. Ellie was completely silent.

Finally, Dina mustered the courage to say something.

“You know, when I was in Detroit, in that bandit camp…” she began. “… I remember after my parents left me there, they didn’t really know what to do with me. They kinda just… left me on my own for a while. I was only ten years old, and I was left in the camp to fend for myself, really. They weren’t terribly violent, but they weren’t friendly, either. At least they knew my mom, or else I would’ve been thrown to the clickers long before that. But, there was a clicker attack on the main building, and I was stuck in a room with some of the soldiers. They were going to throw me to the clickers outside the door, but I fought them off.

“They grabbed me here–” Dina cupped the nape of her neck and signaled to her arms. “– And they tried to open the door and throw me out, but I got out of their arms. How I managed to slip out of the grip of two big guys, I couldn’t tell you. I was only thirteen. But I didn’t go unmarked.”

Lifting up her shirt, the mark was revealed. On her left side, a large scar was left running horizontally across her waist. It was as long as a well-sized machete, and it went from the edge of her hip, crossing up to just under her ribs. Ellie gaped in surprise – she’d never seen any scar like it, let alone on Dina.

As Dina went to drop the fabric she’d been holding up, Ellie quickly stopped her, holding the shirt up herself. Rough fingers found their way onto the smaller girl’s side, tracing alongside the wound. Dina winced at the contact of Ellie’s cold fingers to her warm, sensitive skin. Every part of her screamed to rip the shirt down, take it out of her hands and cover herself. But when she saw the look on Ellie’s face, how mesmerized and shocked she was, those soft, understanding eyes wandering the length of her scar, searching for some kind of justice in the skin, she felt her breath settle. She suddenly realized the terror of judgment and disgust Ellie had been feeling previously. 

“I’d rip their hands off if I could,” Ellie growled, her hot breath visible through the winter air. The harshness of her voice and the frustration and anger behind bared teeth sent a chill through Dina, but it also warmed her entirely. There was no judgement in that voice, no disgust, nothing but exasperation at the fact that it was there.

Dina placed her hand over Ellie’s roaming one.

“I guess this means we’re soulmates, huh?” She chuckled lightheartedly, through strained eyes.

Ellie swallowed whatever fury she held left, and looked into Dina’s eyes with a cocked eyebrow, following up her comment in a silent agreement to shift the mood.

“How do you figure?”

“Our scars, Ellie,” Dina responded with a playful, exaggerated tone hidden under the smooth waves of her voice. “They’ve connected us.”

“You really think that?” Ellie shot back in an amplified, lovestruck manner.

“Oh, yes, yes I do!”

Ellie wrinkled her nose, releasing a breathy laugh, letting Dina’s shirt fall over her scar once more. Her head found its way onto Dina’s shoulder. While the laughing had uplifted them, the silence that followed brought it back down to a more comfortable level.

“Thank you for showing me that,” Ellie whispered against Dina’s neck, sending goosebumps to ignite down her arms, the hair standing and facing the ceiling. 

Dina gave the air a puzzled look. “Why thank me?”

“It’s good to know you trust me enough to show me that,” she answered simply, with a nuzzle to the skin on her neck.

She couldn’t come up with a good response to her heartwarming, genuine confession. Her hand dived into a sea of red, and she pulled the larger girl closer to her. Everything became warm again.

“Of course,” Dina whispered against the girl’s forehead, pressing the most heartbreakingly gentle kiss to her forehead. “You don’t think of me any differently do you?” Insecurity reared its ugly head as the words passed her lips.

“No, of course not,” Ellie replied immediately. “Do you?”

“Never.”

“Okay… good…” She sighed in relief. “Had me worried there for a second.”

Dina giggled lightly to herself. “Did I?”

“Yeah,” A smile pressed into Dina’s skin. “For a second you had me thinking you’d never speak to me again, y’know?”

“Yeah, well, you were right,” Dina shot back with a grin. “Sorry, but I can’t be laying here with you anymore. Immune people disgust me.”

“Aw, man. Got me there.”

She chuckled again, and sighed. “No, Ellie, I’m still gonna speak to you.”

“Really?” Ellie tilted her head upwards, looking at her with insincere questioning.

“Yeah, I’m doing it, like, right now.”

“Actually?” Ellie pressed, suppressing a smile on that beautiful face.

“Okay, now I’m not talking to you.”

“Wait, seriously?” She kept driving relentlessly, the smile finally escaping.

“Go to bed.” Dina demanded exuberantly.

“Yes, ma’am.”

It didn’t take very long for Dina to doze off, half awake, until Ellie moved. In a sleep-ridden state, she felt the redhead’s warmth travel down her body and lift her shirt. It was then that a pair of soft lips pressed against the gash in her side for what felt like half a second. Her shirt fell back in place, and the warmth returned to her neck. 

Dina involuntarily smiled, and in no more than a minute, she drifted off to sleep, with Ellie following mere moments later.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!  
This is another of the Tumblr requests I received for these two.  
My tumblr handle is @lmontyy, and I take any and all requests, (so long as they're not unreasonable or crazy!) but I'm very easygoing when it comes to writing, and do enjoy writing for others.


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